Denis Villeneuve received his first Oscar nomination Tuesday for directing the aliens-have-landed thriller "Arrival," which is also up for best picture and six other awards, while Ryan Gosling picked up a best acting nod, one of a leading 14 nominations for the film "La La Land."
Montreal's Villeneuve has been making waves in Hollywood lately with several high-profile films, including the greatly anticipated sci-fi film noir "Blade Runner 2049," which stars London, Ont.-born Gosling.
While this is officially Villeneuve's first nomination, his 2010 film "Incendies" was in the running in the best foreign-language film category.
"Arrival" had a strong Canadian contingent on the crew and several Canucks are nominated alongside Villeneuve including: Patrice Vermette for production design; Paul Hotte for set decoration; Bernard Gariepy Strobl and Claude La Haye for sound mixing; Sylvain Bellemare for sound editing; and Shawn Levy, who as a producer shares in the best picture nomination.
"I had tears in my eyes, I was so excited," said Vermette, who was previously nominated for the 2009 film "The Young Victoria."
"It's overwhelming the number of nominations that the movie received. It's just pure happiness."
Gosling's "La La Land" is up for a record-tying 14 Academy Awards nominations, matching it with "Titanic" and "All About Eve" for most nominations.
Gosling, who has already won a best actor Golden Globe Award for "La La Land," plays a jazz musician in the fantastical musical ode to Old Hollywood. He now has two best actor Oscar nominations; he was recognized for "Half Nelson" in 2007.
The odds are stacked in favour of a Canadian winner in the best animated short category. Three of the five titles nominated have Canadian ties, including Theodore Ushev's National Film Board of Canada production "Blind Vaysha." Also nominated are "Pear Cider and Cigarettes," directed by Robert Valley of Vancouver, and "Piper," helmed by Alan Barillaro of Niagara Falls, Ont.
Winnipeg-born producer Howard Barish is also named in the documentary feature category for his work on "13th," directed by Ava DuVernay.
Canada was on the short list in the foreign-language film category but did not receive a nomination. Montreal's Xavier Dolan was in the running for "It's Only the End of the World," a French-language film that is up for a leading nine Canadian Screen Awards.
